Santa Barbara residents put their trust in the City Council to protect the quality of life we all enjoy. As Councilmembers our most important responsibility is to adopt a budget that preserves the health and safety of our city. Simply put, just like in our personal lives, expenses must match revenues.
Every service, from public safety and emergency preparedness to affordable housing, infrastructure, libraries, and parks requires a sustainable funding source. The unfortunate reality is we’re in the red—stretching our resources and draining our emergency reserves.
As the Council prepares for upcoming budget deliberations, we need to take immediate corrective action. The first step is acknowledging the problem with all seven Council members recognizing it so we can collectively find solutions.
That unanimous acknowledgement has yet to occur.
Just one year ago, the budget passed on an unprecedented 4-3 vote. The “NO” votes came from Mayor Randy Rowse, Councilmember Mike Jordan, and me. We voted no because the final proposal raised expenditures beyond the City Administrator’s recommendation. It also relied heavily on emergency reserves to cover ongoing expenses. We were spending more than we had. The three of us called for immediate action. We were ignored.
So where are we now?
The upcoming Fiscal Year 2027 budget carries a projected deficit of $14.6M. Through a series of measures from the City Administrator and Finance Director, that number has been revised to $3.4M—but a vast majority of those measures are temporary and unsustainable. More alarming, we are now using emergency reserves with no actual emergency.
At this rate, even with an annual contribution of $3M beyond the base allocation, reserves wouldn’t be fully restored until nearly 2040.
These facts should alarm every resident and every member of the Council.
Santa Barbara is a resilient community. We have the tools and resolve to meet this moment, but the path forward starts with discipline. We must control spending, seek efficiencies, honor our Measure C commitment to maintain our infrastructure, reform our permitting process so businesses and developers can invest with confidence, and pursue the Public Private Partnerships that have already proven successful in our city. With once-in-a-generation redevelopment opportunities on State Street and Paseo Nuevo, we need to get this right by starting now.
The choice is simple: discipline or deficits.
I’m choosing discipline for a better tomorrow.
